Producers credit the people of Aurora for movie's success

Denise Crosby / The Beacon-News

Producers Zachary Laoutides and Monica Esmeralda Leon talk about their award-winning movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios" that was shot in Aurora in 2013 and released through video on demand and in certain retail stores earlier this year.

Producers Zachary Laoutides and Monica Esmeralda Leon talk about their award-winning movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios" that was shot in Aurora in 2013 and released through video on demand and in certain retail stores earlier this year. (Denise Crosby / The Beacon-News)

Zachary Laoutides and partner Monica Esmeralda Leon would like to say thank you to Aurora.

These dynamic young founders of Ave Fenix Pictures, which entertainment folks describe as one of the first Latino film studio in the Chicago area, are nothing but grateful for all those who helped make possible their first movie released earlier this year – available through video on demand and at certain retail locations.

"Adios Vaya Con Dios," a gritty urban indie film about Chicago's Latino street gangs, was shot in the summer of 2013 almost entirely in Aurora. Not only were local streets and buildings utilized, the producers relied so heavily on residents, businesses, churches, even the police department, that the film's director is listed as La Raza … or "the people" of Aurora.

It's an unusual credit, so much so that when the move was selected for the prestigious Bel Air International Film Festival in 2014, the couple was asked by officials to replace La Raza with individual names because, well, that's just how it's done.

But the producers insisted credit goes to a community that "opened their businesses, their homes, their barrios, their souls to us," said Laoutides.

Ave Fenix Pictures / Handout

Zachary Laoutides, in his role as gang lieutenant Rory King in the movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios," gets his face painted by makeup and tattoo artist Alfred Kaos Leon of Aurora.

Zachary Laoutides, in his role as gang lieutenant Rory King in the movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios," gets his face painted by makeup and tattoo artist Alfred Kaos Leon of Aurora. (Ave Fenix Pictures / Handout)

So kudos to all of you, literally. Not only did "Adios Vaya Con Dios" earn a coveted spot in the Bel Air festival, it received nominations for several major awards at this red carpet affair – including best actor and best screenplay for Laoutides, as well as best director for, well, that would be the people of Aurora.

Oh, and your movie also was named runner up for the best feature film at the fest.

All that being said, what makes this production so compelling is not just the awards or flattering reviews received before and after its international release. It's how the movie came to be made and the two extraordinarily caring and passionate people behind it.

Laoutides, 29, grew up in the area, received a degree from Lewis University, and became an actor and writer who thought he got his big break when named a finalist in Simon Fuller's XIX Entertainment's nationwide talent search a few years ago.

But when a project that Fuller, the creator of "American Idol," was working on failed to materialize, Laoutides found himself back at square one: paying bills working mostly as an extra on Fox's "Prison Break" filmed at Joliet Correctional Center.

Much of his free time, however, was spent on a real-life mentoring program he had formed to work with at-risk kids in that area. That outreach eventually led to his meeting with 25-year-old Leon, a West Aurora High School grad who emigrated from Mexico to Aurora with her parents when she was 15 and was equally passionate about helping kids here in this city get and stay on the right path.

Eventually Laoutides decided the only way to break into the movie business was to write his own scripts and develop his own studio. And what better stories to tell, both he and new business partner Leon decided, than the ones they had been hearing "from the barrio" for so many years.

Ave Fenix Pictures / Handout

Posters for the gangster indie movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios" include credit to the director, La Raza, which means "the people" of Aurora, according to the film's producers.

Posters for the gangster indie movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios" include credit to the director, La Raza, which means "the people" of Aurora, according to the film's producers. (Ave Fenix Pictures / Handout)

"We wanted to show something entirely different," Laoutides said. "We wanted to do a gangster genre but in a way that's never been done before."

The film stars Laoutides as Rory King, a heavily-tattooed half Hispanic-half Irish gang member trying to change his life around but who runs into problems when his friend is released from prison.

The art house genre allowed Laoutides to take some liberties with reality: For example, King's gang, the fictional Olmecs, paint their faces when going about their criminal lifestyle in a city that is never named but at one time is referred to as "J-town" - about 5 percent of the shots were taken in Joliet.

The movie is worth checking out for more reasons than its familiar Aurora streetscapes. Despite the fact it probably cost less to make than the food budgets for most of those movies it was up against at the film fest, "Adios" features a powerful storyline, haunting music and memorable characters that will likely stay with you for a long time.

What Laoutides and Leon lacked in dollars they made up for in passion …. and help from the Aurora community that included regular citizens and business owners. Even St. Nicholas Church opened up its doors for the cameras, cast and crews.

Also among those the producers wish to thank are Aurora police officers who, on more than one occasion, were called to the scene by citizens concerned real life crimes were taking place. At one point, Laoutides recalls – now with a laugh – he was held at gunpoint by officers who arrived to see him running around in creepy skeletal paint and brandishing what they could only assume was a real weapon.

"They could have shut us down," said Laoutides, who admitted to using a "guerrilla style" of filmmaking which translated means "shoot now/ask permission later."

Ave Fenix Pictures / Handout

Actor and writer Zachary Loutides is shown in his face paint for the movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios" that was shot in Aurora.

Actor and writer Zachary Loutides is shown in his face paint for the movie "Adios Vaya Con Dios" that was shot in Aurora. (Ave Fenix Pictures / Handout)

Instead, cops were friendly and helpful, he added, even staying to make sure everything went smoothly as the scene was being filmed.

Then there was the cast: Less than 10 percent of the 100-plus actors were professionals. The rest was a diverse group that, according to Laoutides, included everyone from "mothers, restaurant and business owners, tattoo and graffiti artists to those in the gang life."

At one point, when the Chicago actors they had hired had car trouble coming to Aurora, Laoutides and Leon had a choice of shutting down production for that day or quickly finding replacements. That's when Leon says she tore off running down the street looking for two guys who could play the part of the kidnappers in one important scene.

When she ran across a duo shooting hoops at a park, she quickly convinced them to join the cast. They even waited for a third friend to show up who had some acting experience.

"They were absolutely outstanding," Leon said, "and we only had to do one take" to shoot the scene.

When you are working with a lean budget, delays can be a killer. The entire film, said the producers, was shot in three months but that often meant brutal 14-hour days.

Laoutides and Leon have kept up this taxing schedule since then. Immediately after wrapping "Adios" they went to work on their next two productions. "When My Eyes Go Dark" – also starring Laoutides and filmed mostly in Aurora – is based on the early events of Detroit psychic Lazaro Ruben Torres who was clinically declared dead five times. That movie, according to industry reports, is already garnering positive reviews and being shopped around for film festivals.

The studio just completed "Love You to the Moon and Back," which, according to its Facebook page, is about two jazz musicians and hustlers trying to create a hit song when an escort turns their lives upside down.

While neither of the producers now live in Aurora, it's obvious from my lively conversation with them their heart still remains here.

"I feel very connected to this community," said Laoutides. "It has a unique and beautiful look that people don't often notice."

And, while he's proud of the diversity displayed throughout his first movie – the sound track, for example, features musicians from here, Mexico and the United Kingdom – he insists "this really is an Aurora film."

"It is a La Raza effort," Laoutides said. "The city and the people made this story happen."